O’Death | 04.03 | Philadelphia
By Team JamBase Apr 14, 2008 • 11:42 am PDT

O’Death :: 04.03.08 :: Johnny Brenda’s :: Philadelphia, PA
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This ragtag group slaughtered Philadelphia letting Sid Vicious‘ spirit thrash poetically out of their banjo picking, fiddle howls and shiver inducing vocals. This satisfying vision possessed the crowd in a way that would have amused hardened Ramones fans. Rewind to last week, if you needed an excuse to kick up your heels and shun death for another day then you worked your way down to Girard and Frankfort. There you found a hootenanny with Kiss Kiss, O’Death and Murder by Death. These three bands had just embarked on a multi-city tour that landed at Johnny Brenda’s, a fine establishment in Fishtown known for celebrating punk’s spirit in its many forms.

O’Death’s members had been out in the audience all evening, mingling with their family and friends. The band spit more energy just walking onto stage than a bull caged in at a rodeo. The crimson-headed Gabe Darling struck first blood as he plucked the familiar, slow-turned, jack-in-the-box style “Down To Rest” on the ukulele. The intro was snagged in midair by guitarist Greg Jamie, whose haunting vocals wrapped their icy fingers of woe around the melody’s neck. A shirtless, wild-eyed Jesse Newman (bass) stomped in a count as David Rogers-Berry and Bob Pycior broke the formalities with a crash of drums and a rip of the fiddle. It didn’t take folks long to realize that this was way more than just oddly arranged bluegrass. O’Death’s twisted slant on Americana and bluegrass was siphoned through a cornucopia of musical influences.
At first take, O’Death is a foot-stomping, barnburner of a good time. Their show is a place where you can shed your shirt and shake your neighbor. When you pull your head from the moonshine long enough to listen, you’ll hear a heck of a lot. Jamie’s vocals are truly unique, perpetually shifting from a sorrowful, hauntingly nostalgic trill to a rapid farmer’s hog calling sooie. His tone came across as deeply old and Appalachian – twang filled but not truly country. Pair that harmonious control with lunatic energy from Rogers-Berry, Pycior and Newman, who more resembled Glenn Danzig than Bill Monroe, and you get a feel for what this band can do. Their abilities produced dynamic, all-encompassing peaks and valleys that were gorgeously amplified by their pagan stage presence. O’Death’s abrasive style teetered on the edge of calm as their take of The Pixies‘ “Nimrod’s Son” hit us squarely in the gut. They followed with a poignant starting “Only Daughter” that disintegrated into aggressive banjo led havoc.

They continued to flick and fiddle with our music-affected membrane until we had washed our sins away twice over in sweat and blood. We were granted one breath during the entire hour-long performance, a less-than-gentle waltz that was really more of a gulp of air and not quite a full breath. The band stayed on stage with help from the audience’s pleas, slaying the remnants of the house with an “Allie May Reynolds” encore. The full-tilt barnburner sent Darling and Berry skyward, flying from the tops of their seats in joy driven leaps. Our expanded congregation, grown with maiden fans since the set’s beginning, now sung along with a devout vehemence. As Jamie’s eyes spun one last time towards his brain, we were left with the notion that something devilishly divine had infatuated everyone in the venue.
Murder by Death would have faired better playing before O’Death. They actually gave a decent show with Sarah Balliet pulling some remarkable notes from her cello. With eight years and a new album under their belts, they rolled out of the gates at a trot compared to the throttling O’Death had just given us. Headliner or not, Murder by Death just felt out of position. No pun intended, but they were simply murdered by O’Death.
O’Death – 4/3/08 – Johnny Brenda’s – Philadelphia
JamBase | Pennsylvania
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